1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data reproducing apparatus that uses a laser beam to record data on a data recording disc or reproduce data from the recording disc. In particular, it relates to an improvement in the arrangement of a drive unit to move an optical head and the optical head used for recording data or picking up data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in this type of data reproducing apparatus, the movement of an optical head is controlled along a guide in the radial direction of a data recording disc by a drive unit. The drive unit comprises, for example, a voice coil motor body and a bobbin biased by thrust from the voice coil motor body.
To move the optical head rapidly and to control it accurately, the resultant force point of the drive force generated by the voice coil motor body must coincide with the centroid of the optical head. With this in mind, conventionally both the voice coil motor body and the range of movement of the optical head have been arranged in a region on the same side of the position of the spindle motor axis that forms the center of rotation of the data recording disc, which region is bounded by the position of this axis.
With such an arrangement, since the range of movement of the optical head and the voice coil motor body are on the same side, and the space occupied by the voice coil motor body is large, the available area for arranging these items is restricted, even though the voice coil motor body is arranged below the range of movement of the optical head or to the side of the optical head.
Conventionally, therefore, the ability to reduce the size of this type of data reproducing apparatus is limited by the arangement of the optical head drive unit.